All posts tagged knitted squares

When it comes to knitting, I appear to be a ‘big project’ girl. My first ever knitting project was a gorgeous cardigan from Debbie Bliss’s Andes pattern book. It would appear that a cardigan is not the easiest knitting project for a virgin knitter, and mine ended up looking a bit like the lab coat I used to wear in Physics lessons.

Since then I’ve migrated to blanket squares. Now these I like, because

They are portable.

If it turns into a clusterf*ck you can rip the square up and start again with out ruining the entire project

You get to practise lots of different kinds of stitches (see point 2). I learned intarsia, cabling, bobbles and lace stitching methods this way.

If you knit enough of them you can turn them into a really special ‘heirloom’ blanket

You can check out another of my efforts here, but this one (below) is for my mother. I made the first square and slid it into a card for her on Mother’s Day. I think I’m about half way there now. I probably need about 20 more squares, plus more to add a ‘hem’ all around.

Mistakes? I’ve made a few..

As you can see it’s still a work in progress. It looks scruffy – but so did my other one until I tidied the ends up and stitched them together. I can’t wait to see the finished thing, but that might be a way off. I am not a ‘natural knitter’! At my village ‘knit and natter’ group, I do more nattering than knitting, and when I do knit, my elbows tend to get in the way of everyone else. But hey, I don’t really go there for the knitting – I go there for the hilarious conversations (yes really). And also for the swearing. It sounds a bit American Pie (as in ‘this one time, at band camp..’), but the air in our village turns bluer than this blanket when us ‘yarn ho’s’ are having a coven meeting.

One or two ends to tidy up still..

The yarns I’m using are Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran. They work interchangeably in this project as they knit up on the same needles and have a very similar feel. I am hoping my mum will use this blanket in her garden summer house, which has gorgeous seaside views, so I chose sea blues, mixed in with neutrals.

Knitting – sometimes an outdoor sport.

All of the patterns from these squares were adapted from this book – truly a bible for knitters of squares. As a novice knitter I was stunned to find there are rather a lot of these books, but this is the best. I know. I knit a LOT of squares.

This is a Very Good Book.

And that’s it. My latest work in progress, and proof that knitting blanket squares is NOT just for grannies. Anyone with wanky hips can do it!